UNIVERSAL POWER

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1920, Page 3

UNIVERSAL POWER

IRRIGATION IN DRY LANDS

ELECTRIC PLANT IN COAL AREAS In the course of J-iis long journey of 30,000 miles Mr M. C. Henderson, Dunedin City electrical engineer, came upon many evidences of the beneficence or hydro-electric schemes in the general life of American communities. Referring to his travels in California, lie writes: all the towns pnd villages passed through on the plains had an electric supply, and even the rural districts were well provided for. In view of the extensions recently proposed fpr Strath Taieri, it was a matter of great interest to find out on what terms such facilities were provided by a company which could bp trusted not to cater for any customers unless under compulsion pr pn a strictly, commercial hasps. The explanation proved to ho very simple, and was summed up in ’irrigation.’ Many of the plains of California, without water are a desert; given an adequate supply of water, and they become a garden. On the journey mentioned above many rhiles of vineyards and orchards were passed through the greater portion of which would have been non-existent but for irrigation, and the pumping of tliis water provides the lead that guarantees to the power company a revenue sufficient to recoup them for the cost of supply, A great deal of irrigation is also oarried on by gravitation after the water has been utilised for power purposes to the utmost economical limit, Remembering the past the Waipori Flat as a centre of gold dredging activity, it will no doubt be of interest to state that in the neighbourhood of Sacramento City several large dredges were noticed at work, and all driven by hydro electric power. Measures are, however taken to restore the surface soil after'the gold has been extracted, so that fruit truees can be planted, apparently with most successful results.” In England electricity is generated largely by coal-fired boilers, and yet in the centre of one of the richest coalfields, where it might be supposed that a company which had to generate electricity from coal would not he able to tempt colliery proprietors, he found that in Northumberland County alone, no less than 40 collieries were using power brought from the Newcastle and District Supply Company for mining operations, and many others in Durham County did likewise. “It was a surprise also,” he chronicles, “to’find that in this centre of coal mining the electric range is being largely used. A large restaurant in Newcastle has been running for some years, and has proved ' so successful that when the company, decided to open a branch shop in another part of trie city, it was decided to adopt the electric supply for practically fill pu>poses.”